David Olère

David Olère ( born January 19, 1902 in Warsaw, † August 21, 1985 in Paris) was a Jewish painter of Polish descent. His work is dedicated to the Holocaust.

Life

David Olère received early in his artistic training. At sixteen he made woodcuts at museums and galleries in Gdansk and Berlin; at 19, he left Poland and began his career in the film industry at the European Film Alliance as a designer, painter and decorator. In 1923 he came to Paris and worked for the film company Paramount. In 1930 he married Juliette Ventura, a French woman, in 1937, he moved to Noisy- le -Grand.

After the war broke out, he was drafted to fight for the infantry regiment at Lons -le- Saunier. On February 20, 1943 he was arrested by the French police and initially held in the transit camp Drancy.

On 2 March 1943, he was deported to Auschwitz II. There he was assigned to the so-called Sonderkommando, whose job it was to remove the bodies from the gas chambers and the remains of the ash from the furnaces. Because of his artistic talent, he was also forced to decorate the letters of the members of the SS.

In January 1945, he left Auschwitz with the death march. After working at Buchenwald and Melk he was liberated in May 1945 by the Americans in Ebensee.

He processed the experiences in his paintings. As in Auschwitz only three photos exist of the activities of the special command of the burning pits, his paintings and drawings are regarded as important historical documents and evidence.